Ex 4:24-26: I don't understand this at all.  Why did God confront Moses and why was He about to kill him?  Why did Zipporah, a Midianite, have any knowledge of this covenant ritual of circumcision, and how could she surmise that as the problem between God and Moses?  And did she and the children continue on to Egypt with Moses?

Thank you!  Please, if there is Scripture to confirm your understanding of this paragraph in Exodus, would you please share it with me also?  Thanks a lot, and God's blessings on you!

Sincerely,
Perplexed

Dear Perplexed,

Ex 4:24-26 is an odd little anecdote in Moses’ life.  We don’t get many details, so everything that we understand about it is from putting very few pieces of information together.  Here is what we know:

1. God was angry enough with Moses to kill him.
2. Zipporah, Moses’ wife, circumcised their son, and she wasn’t happy with the fact that she had to perform emergency surgery on her son.
3. After the circumcision, Moses’ life was spared.

Using these meager pieces of information, our understanding is that God was mad at Moses because he hadn’t obeyed God’s command to circumcise his children.  Remember, circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel (Acts 7:8).  The fact that Moses, God’s chosen leader for Israel, wasn’t keeping that covenant with his children was a big deal.  Our understanding is that Moses had not circumcised his son, God was angry about it, and Zipporah was aware of the problem, and quickly saved everyone by circumcising her son.

As for whether or not Zipporah and her sons continued to Egypt, Ex 18:2-5 seems to imply that they went back home and met up with Moses once he had led the Israelites out of Egypt.

Why did God want all the older generation to die off (wander for forty years in the wilderness), and the younger generation with Joshua go into the promise land?

Sincerely,
A Question For The Ages

Dear A Question For The Ages,

Numbers 14 explains why God had the first generation of Jews that left Egypt wander in the wilderness for forty years.  God was punishing them for their lack of faith in Him.  When Moses sent forty spies to investigate the land of Canaan, the majority of those spies came back and said that it was impossible to conquer the land.  The people were afraid, murmured against God, and planned on returning to Egypt (Num 14:3-4).
God was incensed by their cowardice, lack of faith, and grumbling (Num 14:27).  He decided to punish that generation by having them all die in the wilderness (Num 14:33-34), and their children became the ones to conquer the land (Num 14:31).

Does the Bible forbid Christians from becoming wealthy?

Sincerely,
Saving

Dear Saving,

Wealth is not a sin for Christians, but the love of money can lead to all sorts of evils (1 Tim 6:10).  Matt 6:24-25 says that it is impossible to serve both God and wealth.  When wealth becomes more important to us than the Lord, then wealth has destroyed us.

Pr. 23:4-5 warns against chasing riches because they are fickle and fleeting, and Matt 16:26 reminds us that no matter how much money we gain, it isn’t enough to trade our souls for.  Whether we are poor or rich, if money becomes our god, than we are sunk.

How far is it from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea?

Sincerely,
Lay Of The Land

Dear Lay Of The Land,

It is roughly eighty miles from Nazareth in Galilee to the city of Bethlehem.  Traveling at the rate of twenty miles a day (a generous speed for a caravan), it would take roughly four days to get from Nazareth to Joseph’s hometown of Bethlehem for the census (Lk 2:1-5)… a difficult and arduous journey for a very pregnant Mary.

What separates heaven and hell?

Sincerely,
Separation Anxiety

Dear Separation Anxiety,

The only detail we have on that subject is when Abraham says, “there is a great chasm fixed” between Paradise and torments in Lk 16:26.  We have no idea of what that great chasm looks like or how vast it is – nor even what it is made out of because it is in the spiritual realm, not the physical one.